Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem was one of the greatest and most famous unsolved math problems. For over 350 years mathematicians struggled to prove a theorem that is simple enough for many schoolchildren to understand.

I have spent many hours contemplating this problem. It seems so simple. Even a modest mathematical education is enough to suggest possible approaches. I thought and experimented and even managed to prove some limited special cases. It always seemed that a general proof was just out of reach. I knew I didn't have a chance at proving it, but it was instructive and enjoyable to try. I could well understand the obsession that this problem provoked among countless people.

I remember the day I first heard that the problem was solved. (It turned out that there was an error that had to be fixed.) I remember it the way an older generation remembers the first moon landing. This proof is one of the great triumphs of human thought.

Fermat's Last Theorem-Documentary